【英语语言学习】程序病毒传播

Hi. I'm Kevin Allocca, I'm the trends manager at YouTube, and I professionally watch YouTube videos. It's true. So we're going to talk a little bit today about how videos go viral and then why that even matters. We all want to be stars -- celebrities¹, singers, comedians² -- and when I was younger, that seemed so very, very hard to do. But now Web video has made it so that any of us or any of the creative things that we do can become completely famous in a part of our world's culture. Any one of you could be famous on the Internet by next Saturday. But there are over 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. And of that, only a tiny percentage ever goes viral and gets tons of views and becomes a cultural moment. So how does it happen? Three things: tastemakers, communities of participation³ and unexpectedness. All right, let's go.

 

(Video) Bear Vasquez: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God! Wooo! Ohhhhh, wowwww!

 

KA: Last year, Bear Vasquez posted this video that he had shot outside his home in Yosemite National Park. In 2010, it was viewed 23 million times. (Laughter) This is a chart of what it looked like when it first became popular last summer. But he didn't actually set out to make a viral video, Bear. He just wanted to share a rainbow. Because that's what you do when your name is Yosemite Mountain Bear. (Laughter) And he had posted lots of nature videos in fact. And this video had actually been posted all the way back in January. So what happened here? Jimmy Kimmel actually. Jimmy Kimmel posted this tweet that would eventually propel the video to be as popular as it would become. Because tastemakers like Jimmy Kimmel introduce us to new and interesting things and bring them to a larger audience.

 

(Video) Rebecca Black: ♫ It's Friday, Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. ♫ ♫ Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend. ♫ ♫ Friday, Friday. Gettin' down on Friday. ♫

 

KA: So you didn't think that we could actually have this conversation without talking about this video I hope. Rebecca Black's "Friday" is one of the most popular videos of the year. It's been seen nearly 200 million times this year. This is a chart of what it looked like. And similar to "Double Rainbow," it seems to have just sprouted⁴ up out of nowhere.

 

So what happened on this day? Well it was a Friday, this is true. And if you're wondering about those other spikes⁵, those are also Fridays. (Laughter) But what about this day, this one particular Friday? Well Tosh.0 picked it up, a lot of blogs starting writing about. Michael J. Nelson from Mystery Science Theater was one of the first people to post a joke about the video on Twitter. But what's important is that an individual or a group of tastemakers took a point of view and they shared that with a larger audience, accelerating the process.

 

And so then this community formed of people who shared this big inside joke and they started talking about it and doing things with it. And now there are 10,000 parodies⁶ of "Friday" on YouTube. Even in the first seven days, there was one parody⁷ for every other day of the week. (Laughter) Unlike the one-way entertainment of the 20th century, this community participation is how we become a part of the phenomenon -- either by spreading it or by doing something new with it.

 

(Music)

 

So "Nyan Cat" is a looped animation⁸ with looped music. It's this, just like this. It's been viewed nearly 50 million times this year. And if you think that that is weird⁹, you should know that there is a three-hour version of this that's been viewed four million times. (Laughter) Even cats were watching this video. (Laughter) Cats were watching other cats watch this video.

 

(Laughter)

 

But what's important here is the creativity that it inspired amongst this techie, geeky Internet culture. There were remixes. (Laughter) Someone made an old timey version. (Laughter) And then it went international. (Laughter) An entire remix community sprouted up that brought it from being just a stupid joke to something that we can all actually be a part of. Because we don't just enjoy now, we participate.

 

And who could have predicted any of this? Who could have predicted "Double Rainbow" or Rebecca Black or "Nyan Cat?" What scripts could you have written that would have contained this in it? In a world where over two days of video get uploaded every minute, only that which is truly unique and unexpected can stand out in the way that these things have. When a friend of mine told me that I needed to see this great video about a guy protesting bicycle fines in New York City, I admit I wasn't very interested.

 

(Video) Casey Niestat: So I got a ticket for not riding in the bike lane, but often there are obstructions¹⁰ that keep you from properly riding in the bike lane.

 

(Laughter)

 

KA: By being totally surprising and humorous, Casey Niestat got his funny idea and point seen five million times. And so this approach holds for anything new that we do creatively. And so it all brings us to one big question ...

 

(Video) Bear Vasquez: What does this mean? Ohhhh. (Laughter)

 

KA: What does it mean? Tastemakers, creative participating communities, complete unexpectedness, these are characteristics of a new kind of media and a new kind of culture where anyone has access and the audience defines the popularity. I mean, as mentioned earlier, one of the biggest stars in the world right now, Justin Bieber, got his start on YouTube. No one has to green-light your idea. And we all now feel some ownership in our own pop culture. And these are not characteristics of old media, and they're barely true of the media of today, but they will define the entertainment of the future.

 

Thank you.

 

(Applause)

1 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

2 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

3 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

4 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 parodies   

n.拙劣的模仿( parody的名词复数 )；恶搞；滑稽的模仿诗文；表面上模仿得笨拙但充满了机智用来嘲弄别人作品的作品v.滑稽地模仿，拙劣地模仿( parody的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Later, however, they delight in parodies of nursery rhymes. 可要不了多久，他们便乐于对它进行窜改。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
• Most parodies are little more than literary teases. 大多数讽刺的模仿诗文只能算上是文学上的揶揄。 来自辞典例句

7 parody   

n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文

参考例句：

• The parody was just a form of teasing.那个拙劣的模仿只是一种揶揄。
• North Korea looks like a grotesque parody of Mao's centrally controlled China,precisely the sort of system that Beijing has left behind.朝鲜看上去像是毛时代中央集权的中国的怪诞模仿，其体制恰恰是北京方面已经抛弃的。

8 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

9 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

10 obstructions   

n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠

参考例句：

• The absence of obstructions is of course an idealization. 没有障碍物的情况当然是一种理想化的情况。 来自辞典例句
• These obstructions could take some weeks to clear from these canals. 这些障碍物可能要花几周时间才能从运河中清除掉。 来自辞典例句